ABSTRACT
An anonymous author read to his children some lectures on English poets which he later published. He mentioned Donne in speaking of the writers of the reign of Elizabeth, and of the seventeenth century. (Lectures on the EtJglish Poets, 1847, pp. 27-8 and 30 .)
Towards the end of this queen's reign and during that of her immediate successor, a class of poets arose to whom the name of philosophical didactic, or, according to Dr. Johnson, metaphysical poets, has been given; such as Donne, who, though highly esteemed in his day, fell into disrepute in the last century, but whose works, harsh and full of conceits as they are, have recently been praised, as displaying much learning and caustic wit, with a rich and picturesque fancy. . . .
